TTokyo

Negative aspect of Japanese society: Avoid trouble at all costs!

  • April 21, 2026


Negative aspect of Japanese society: Avoid trouble at all costs!



by YamatoRyu2006

31 comments

  1. Original tweet: [https://x.com/Matthew1561979/status/2046027802810679337](https://x.com/Matthew1561979/status/2046027802810679337)

    Sometimes I feel like this “avoid trouble” element of Japanese society, especially Tokyo is just an excuse. Its just a coldhearted selfish attitude of “minding my own business” and “I don’t give a fuck about others”.

    I bet if you were going to do this shit in rural countryside of Japan, let’s say some town or village in Kyushu, people would have certainly intervened and even get physical.

    If this happened in Osaka, there would be atleast one guy who would come up and help.

    In Tokyo, usually anyone who comes out to help is either some tourist or a Korean dude. You will almost certainly never receive public help in the extremely modernized parts of Tokyo.

    This is just a sad reality of living in Tokyo. Everyone fucking works like a robot. Seems like all those Japan stereotypes floating on the internet which we all previously dismissed them as “shitty weeby ideas” are actually the reality of Tokyo.

    What’s more shocking is that the dude filming this stuff is simply watching instead of lending a hand.

    Perhaps earning “useless digital points” on SNS is more important than humanity.

  3. You can hear the guy taking the video say “nonono.. this is not our country”, I tend to agree, as a foreigner I’d rather not interfere in a dispute I potentially don’t understand

  6. Unfortunately this is a typical scene when everyone else just keeps checking their phones, and all the Ji ji next to them are zoned out

  7. whats the backstory?

    if we dont know that then we can’t really make sense of the situation imo

  8. Yep, just like when women get groped in public. But to their defense, some crimes are so bad, best to just call the cops! 

  9. Am I right to say that Japan doesn’t have a self defence law? If you fight back against an attacker, you could both be found guilty of assault. Extremely tricky if you are foreigner as you could be deported.

  10. Staying out of it was a very good decision. Think about this situation; it’s not even that bad and doesn’t seem like anyone’s really going to get hurt.

  11. Those are two grown ass men I’m not getting involved in that anywhere, let them settle it. None of my business.

  14. Back in the early 2010’s when I used to commute down the Chuo line towards Suidobashi this was almost a daily occurence. If I felt like I had to jump in and stop two salarymen from bickering and becoming physical I’d be basically doing it every morning. One time two of them starting throwing punches over a newspaper and several people shoved them both out the doors when they opened at Yotsuya to continue out there instead. I think OP is confusing a lot of people as apathetic or scared to help when really it’s just they’ve seen this shit so many times, as long as one doesn’t pull out a knife let them work it out and don’t incriminate yourself over some pointless jiji argument. Foreigners especially should think of their residence status first before deeming it necessary to jump into some stupid old guys bitching and shoving one another.

  15. As a foreigner unless someone is trying to murder someone you don’t get involved ever, maybe if they beat a child you step between so they hit you instead but between adults or teenagers never ever get involved.

  16. Amazing the number of Japan experts always in the comments that have all aspects of Japan and the Japanese figured out to a T.

  18. So I know that fighting back can sometimes not end well for yourself even if someone else started the fight, so if I were the guy sitting down, I would just get up and leave. I wonder why he isn’t. No one is forcing him to stay seated to get slapped and yelled at. And it seems like he definitely could handle his own with this old guy, so I wonder why he didn’t just get out of the way to avoid this unnecessary conflict 😅 I mean it’s not this guy’s fault the old guy is crazy, and he shouldn’t have to put up with it, but if his options are stay and get harassed, fight back and get in trouble himself possibly, or walk away and have all this possibly end… why would you not walk away??

  19. it’s hard to pick a side, you don’t know what transpired.

    As ugly as this interaction is, it doesn’t seem to be escalating much and neither is unable to defend themselves.

    I feel the need to interfere with everyone’s business – even a physical disagreement, is something you should really temper, because if nobody is about to get seriously hurt, you’re just going to escalate things even further.
    This is one of those times that sucks but I would be hesitant to get involved until it reaches a tipping point.

  20. Better not get things escalated especially when the younger one doesn’t seems to be troubled that much(can defend himself). I came from a country where people tend to judge someone on the spot and beat the person collectively. I despise that kind of short-tempered behavior and violence. Also, it’s different each case since the people involved will be different. The people in this video, two men sit in adjacent to the young man were old, on other side it’s a woman, they could get themselves hurt. Sometimes there might be older man intervening by shouting, so not everyone just ‘being cold’, they just have their own way to deal with things. Let’s not quick to judge what’s ‘weird’ to us, observe and learn first.

  21. What’s the negative? So, you would rather have everyone escalate the situation and have a brawl and maybe even become more violent. The western world, specifically the USA. needs to learn how to just chill. You don’t need to confront and fight everyone.

  22. Not a huge spoiler, but the opening scene of the psychological horror movie Exit 8 reflects this.

  25. If that had been a person who was no Japanese and hit that guy everyone on the fking train would be calling the cops, but since it’s them two..people tend to ignore it!

  28. I know this unrelated but I love the old man next to them trying his dammest to fall asleep despite everything going on lol

  29. As a foreigner, one should not get involved in any altercations in Japan, particularly any involving a Japanese citizen.

  30. I lived in Tokyo for over 15 years. Unfortunately in a city of over 10 million, you gotta expect a few crazies. I ran into trouble only 3 times though. Just ignored the crazy Japanese dudes and nothing eventuated luckily.

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